Özlem Atikcan
I am a Professor of Politics and International Studies and the Director of the ESRC-accredited Doctoral Training Partnership, Midlands Graduate School.
I am also the Principal Investigator of the FRAMENET project, a Co-Investigator of the RED-SPINEL project, and a member of Jean Monnet Network on Transatlantic Trade Politics.
Profile
I joined PAIS as an Assistant Professor in September 2016 and have been a Professor since August 2021. Before PAIS, I was based at Université Laval, Canada. I completed my doctoral programme in political science at McGill University in Canada and I was also a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of Université de Montréal-McGill University.
My work has appeared in Political Psychology, European Journal of Political Research, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties, Geopolitics, Journal of Public Policy, Journal of European Integration, and as books with Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and McGill-Queen's University Press.
Research Interests
My research examines how political ideas, discourse, and institutional contexts shape public policy and democratic governance in Europe and beyond. I am particularly interested in how frames, narratives, and emotions influence decision-making in multilevel and transnational settings, including referendums, global governance institutions, and regulatory politics. Across my work, I combine insights from political psychology, comparative politics, and international political economy to understand how legitimacy, authority, and power are constructed and contested.
A central strand of my research focuses on political communication and democratic participation. My work on EU and UK referendums analyses how political actors mobilise emotional and symbolic frames to shape public opinion in moments of high political salience. Drawing on over 160 elite interviews, media analysis, and public opinion data, I demonstrate how discourse can affect democratic legitimacy and political choice, challenging purely rationalist accounts of voter behaviour.
More recently, my research has expanded to the study of policy frames and idea diffusion in global governance. As Principal Investigator of the FRAMENET project, I investigate how ideas about human rights, migration, modern slavery, environmental protection, global health, and artificial intelligence circulate through international organisations, NGOs, and government networks. This work pioneers the use of Discourse Network Analysis to trace actor coalitions and the transnational diffusion of policy ideas across complex and overlapping institutional settings in global public policy.
Finally, I am developing new research on trade, regulation, and hybrid governance arrangements in response to global and planetary challenges. This new project explores how public-private partnerships, regulatory hybrids, and emerging governance institutions address issues such as climate change and space governance. Methodologically, my research focuses on comparative research design, combining qualitative fieldwork with computational text analysis and network methods.
Teaching and supervision
I teach undergraduate and postgraduate modules on Comparative Politics and European Integration.
I have supervised over 10 PhD students to date, and I am keen to supervise PhD students whose proposals relate to the research interests noted above.
Publications
Monographs:
Framing the European Union: The Power of Political Arguments in Shaping European Integration, (Cambridge University Press, October 2015).
Framing Risky Choices: Brexit and the Dynamics of High-Stakes Referendums, (McGill-Queen’s University Press, May 2020).
Co-authored with Richard Nadeau and Éric Bélanger.
Edited textbook:
Research Methods in the Social Sciences: An A-Z of Key Concepts, (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Co-edited with Jean Frédéric Morin and Christian Olsson.
Special Issues:
Spatial Imaginaries and the Geopolitics of Trade: A Constructivist Perspective, Geopolitics, October 2025.
Co-edited with Achim Hurrelmann and Gabriel Siles-Brügge.
Refereed journal articles:
'Moral Framing and Referendum Politics: Navigating the Empathy Battlefield', Political Psychology, vol.45, no.1, 193-210, 2024.
Co-authored with Karen Hand.
'Politicisation, Business Lobbying, and the Design of Preferential Trade Agreements', Journal of European Public Policy, 31 (1), 239–268, 2023.
Co-authored with Elise Antoine and Adam Chalmers.
'Emotions, Cognitions and Moderation: Understanding Losers’ Consent in the 2016 Brexit Referendum', Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties, vol.31, no.1, 77-96, 2021.
Co-authored with Richard Nadeau and Éric Bélanger.
'Choosing Lobbying Sides: The General Data Protection Regulation of the EU’, Journal of Public Policy, vol.39, no.4, 543-564, 2019.
Co-authored with Adam Chalmers.
'Agenda Control in EU Referendum Campaigns: The Power of the Anti-EU Side', European Journal of Political Research, vol.57, no.1, 93-115, February 2018.
‘The Puzzle of Double Referendums in the European Union’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol.53, no.3, 937-956, September 2015.
‘Diffusion in Referendum Campaigns: The Case of EU Constitutional Referendums’, Journal of European Integration, vol.37, no.4, 451-470, February 2015.
‘Referendum Campaigns in Polarized Societies: The Case of Turkey’, Turkish Studies, vol.13, no.3,449-470, September 2012.
Co-authored with Kerem Oge.
‘European Union and Minorities: Different Paths of Europeanization?’, Journal of European Integration, vol.32, no.4, 375-392, July 2010.
Book chapters:
‘The Shifting Will of the People: The Case of EU Referendums’, in Julie Smith, ed., Palgrave Handbook on European Referendums, (Palgrave, forthcoming).
‘Referendums on European Integration’, in Laurence Morel and Matt Qvortrup, eds., The Routledge Handbook to Referendums and Direct Democracy, (Routledge, 2017).
‘Les référendums et les élections européennes’, in Olivier Costa and Frédéric Mérand, eds., Traité d’études européennes, (Larcier, 2018).
‘Direct Democracy: Remedying the Democratic Deficit?’, in Finn Laursen, ed., The EU and the Eurozone Crisis: Policy Challenges and Strategic Choices (Routledge: 2013).
Policy papers and blogs:
‘Framing risky choices: How the Leave campaign convinced Britain to take a leap into the unknown’, European Politics and Policy (EUROPP) blog, The London School of Economics and Political Science, November 2020.
‘Losers’ consent and Brexit: the distinction between ‘graceful’ and ‘sore’ losers’, British Politics and Policy blog, The London School of Economics and Political Science, May 2019.
'Political Controversy about International Economic Agreements: Lessons for the Canada-UK Trade Negotiations after Brexit', International Journal 74 (3), 453-462.
Co-authored with Achim Hurrelmann, Adam William Chalmers and Crina Viju-Miljusevic.
'Brexit Divisions: What You Ought to Know about EU Referendums and the UK Debate?’, openDemocracy blog, March 2016. (Guest Editors with Claudia Sternberg)
'The Puzzle of EU Referendums’, openDemocracy blog, March 2016.
‘Asking the Public Twice: Why Do Voters Change Their Minds in Second Referendums on EU Treaties?’, European Politics and Policy (EUROPP) blog, The London School of Economics and Political Science, October 2015.
Working papers:
‘Citizenship or Denizenship: The Treatment of Third Country Nationals in the EU’, Sussex European Institute Working Papers, no.85, May 2006.
Media:
'Is Brexit Definitely Going to Happen?', video explainer, The Guardian, 24 August 2018.